The Stock Market did a dozen giganormous dips losing hundreds of points
at a clip last few weeks. My ears perked up as it reminded me of two little
shakes we had a few days before the BIG Northridge quake. Then and now,
I knew the big one was coming. And I knew one more thing, that I
personally had stood by and let the Bush Gang wage two genocidal, bloody
wars on cavemen in the desert and America deserved a Depression. What goes
around comes around.
THE WAGES OF WAR ARE CLEARLY MARKED as doomed to failure by a great
thinker who wrote THE ART OF WAR.^Read !

Shake as they may, stock markets usually recover because stockaholics
with PC's lunge like wolves at the tiny amount of meat they MAYBE figured
was hanging off all those decaying low-pricetag corporations but ASIA and
EUROPE noted the American double quiver & took it SERIOUSLY and their
fear caused their own even bigger lurch downwards. America didn't seem
to notice. MARTIN LUTHER KING day here markets were closed while
Europe and Asia did their resonant, in-tandem-tapdance of death. A DOUBLE
DIP but I was watching the news all day and Monday very very late, as I
write this, (one hour before NYSE opens Tuesday in New York,) everyone
who's mildly curious about the dawn of the Dark Ages in the USA is setting
alarm clocks to see if the NYSE does a plummet off EUROPE's plummet.
So I have an hour to kill. Things to do while the economy crashes?

1). RENT IN TANDEM! APARTMENT or HOUSE RENTS GO WAY DOWN now
as we have a REAL ESTATE BUST for last year. Be daring. Rent a BIG
house and turn it into a BOARDING HOUSE. Same rent as your apartment first
month but as ROOMERS come in, your rent goes way down. UTILITY bills go
down also believe it or not as it takes the same heat, the same furnace
to heat six people as one, especially when they're all at work all day.
You stay home running your cottage industry from your desk with a small
oil radiator draining wee sums of electricity, cozy in that one room, NOT
heating the entire house. When you go out, TURN the heater off! Now, you
spend 10$ for a dead bolt lock on your bedroom where your CD's jewelry,
PC are cuz some of your roomies are strangers. Each renter gets his own
deadbolt bedroom which will minimize intra-human paranoia we tend to have
when we also have a LOTTA STUFF! Costly toys. Roomies pay 2 months in advance
as eviction laws require you to give them 30 days to dump'em if they're
dope fiends cooking meth in their room.

2.) Start a MOONLIGHTING BUSINESS. I just celebrated this
first night of the GREAT DEPRESSION by making up a lot of business cards
for my little astrology business. Ran them off on my PC. Real simple but
kinda hippie-arty! - I HAVE TO CARRY THEM WITH me out into the world complete
with a 'holder' so they don't get banged up inside my purse Now I
have to really bite the bullet and DO THE CELERY
TRICK
to meet new people and remember to pull the cards out after I schmooze
them up. This has worked in the past. It gets one those important, new
clients.
a.) Corrollary to that is doing your own WEBSITE
to hustle your services or merchandise.
b.) A second requirement is that your business
not be done on your dollar. If you know the posh set, relatives
and friends, hand them your PROSPECTUS.
Do the biz on their dime.

3.) BANK PANIC? It could happen. Get all money out of the
bank. I took all the cash in the house like 170$ and stuck it under my
carpet. Do I dare go to the bank tomorrow morning and pull all my money
out of my accounts? Should I do it in whispers so I don't START THE RESEDA
Panic of 2008? Those Insured deposit promises the gov makes could be worth
the air they're printed on, ya know?

4.) SQUASH that SHOPPING BUG. The next, BIG DEPRESSION TRICK
for me is to NOT GO TO HOME DEPOT tomorrow which I indulgently was craving
to do. I can practically SMELLLLLL those tulip bulbs there at a tenth of
what bulbs cost online but ...but that's still twenty dollars for a hundred
bulbs. I can't indulge myself on a lot of stupid flowers! And they don't
replicate here the way they do in Holland, so a year later, you got bupkis!
I gotta stick that money I woulda spent under the carpet, too. I can paint
tulips on a piece of paper and hang it on the wall, have all the tulips
I WANT! And they don't wilt in a week, either!

5.) WHAT YOU DO BUY, BUY AT BOTTOM DOLLAR. It's
21$ a week to have Starbucks daily. For that amt of money, I can buy 10
fat, pound cans of Don Francisco Colombian if I use my coupons from the
Sunday paper. Market doubles them so I pay 2$ a lb. Now, I could sell coffee
to my five roomates every morn at 3$ a cup and turn the 21$ worth of coffee
into about a thousand dollars or just hoarde the sealed cans of coffee
in my closet pulling out a can a week for my own use. If I have six roomies,
I sure ain't leaving my can in the kitchen! Wonder where I can keep the
bacon and eggs, the TV dinners? Actually, Bacon I don't worry about. I
break the pound down into strips, freeze each in foil or plastic, rolled,
all in a bag. NObody would know what they were! I only use a strip a week,
cuz eggs have more cholesterol than ice cream!

6.) REDUCE EVERYTHING you need to its cheapest form. My Lean
Cuisine Salibury steak TV DINNERS seem somewhat cheap (after I use my Sunday
grocery coupon which market doubles) At that point, they only cost me 2$
each. Turkey's ok, too. Lean Cuisine beats the other brands by a Spanish
mile. I never buy anything with noodles as flour is not food, (GRAIN
IS BAD,) just proteins & I always use a coupon on an
item that's already on sale. But that 2$ a meal still is not the
cheapest way to do it. I know that if I take that same 14$ a week and a.)
see the protein on sale by using circulars sent to my house, then when
I find pork at 99c, an lb, chicken at 69c an lb, I go to that market. I
buy 2 whole chickens, cut them into pieces and freeze them in single meal
packets. Or I buy l0 lbs of pork, wrap each chop, freeze it. Beef is too
costly. Can never buy it anymore. My arteries, frankly are glad. Last,
only fish I can afford is Tilapia. Get this fine fish on sale, 99c lb,
a buck each! Frozen. Stack them in freezer, then with cash that's
leftover, I buy a bunch o' celery, head of dark green salad, bunch
of cilantro, a whole loaf of bible bread, a quart of full fat yogurt and
a dozen eggs (again, with a coupon cuz they've tripled in price.) I can
eat 3 meals a day for a week for that same Lean Cuisine 7 meals for 14$!
A triumph of STRETCHING! THE
FRUGAL INDEX ARCHIVE is a help!

I keep my eyes on the parts of market where bargains show up. The bent
rack. Bent Cans of beans for REFRIED BEANS on my fab, yellow CORN TORTILLAS.
(Mex Market has those super cheap, no wood fiber, no preservatives, either.)
Barrio markets are a treasure. We have Arab, Israeli, Iranian, Korean,
Mexican and CHINESE in my area. Then there's the pricey redneck big chain
SUPER market that has loss leaders weekly, doubles my coupons and their
meat section works for me is BACON as very often, the butcher takes a pound
of bacon and reduces the price. I got my last pound for $1.50. Opened it,
re-wrapped each piece in foil, or plastic, froze 'em all! Once a week or
so I take a strip out, fry it, dry it with paper while it's laying in pan,
two eggs then go in, scrambled or easy up, great meal, ends up costing
a quarter as I use coupons to buy eggs now.
The other thing my BIG SUPER has is a 'bent rack. OH I already said
that. CHocolate cake mix 59c, powd. sugar 59c, that cake got real melted
butter, real eggs, cost me maybe 2$ tops. Cut it into a dozen pieces, frosted
BETWEEN the layers so I could freeze in foil. Lasted two weeks.(she lied).

Bread costs $3.50 a loaf for EZEKIEL BIBLE BREAD. I can make
it for pennies. EASY
RECIPE.
Leave pop up notes in kitchen in A.M. for an HONESTY BOX. They take
two slices for breakfast, it's 50c.
I make all my own JAM so that's a quarter. Roomies pay because if I
see bread or jam gone, I mention it. I have a gal pal in the jam biz, 8$
a 6 oz jar. Some, raspberries, are l0$. She invented kiwi lemon peel. Going
rate, tell your roomies.

7.) NO GARDENERS, HOUSE PAINTERS --- NO GYM COSTS, NEITHER! I
dig my garden, lay the edging, stake it, plant, all myself. Who wants some
l0$ an hour Mexican to get the hard abs. I GET EM! I painted the exterior
of the house myself, again, great exercise for the heart. My grandpa was
a conductor, *(read him on the GERMAN INFLATION)
hands up in the air all the time, lived to nearly l00. Last twenty yrs
he was retired but he kept doing conducting to music, did it sitting down,
hours on end!

House painting was done by my Landlord's helper, Pablo and
me, with two old brushes, pan and roller on a stick. It took us 2 short
days! Paint was marked down. Dja know HOME DEPOT reduces 'refused colors?'
Picked up Several blues, several whites and it became a powder blue house.
5$ a gallon. 15$ total. Artisan wanted 2k to do it and he'd throw in the
paint. To some people that sounds reasonable, I know. I once linoleumed
an entire kitchen, tile by tile, powder blue. Chump change, too. AND MAN
THAT stuff stuck well! I learned a great deal about HOUSE
PAINTING from the rentals I've been in, also about DOING amazing,
artisticFAUX FINISHES
FOR A LIVING.

8.) TEAR OUT THE LAWN - Lawns are frivilous. Turn the entire
property into foodbearing raised beds with winding paths. The GARDEN
INDEX shows you what that looks like and how.. In the last few
days, and mind you, it's mid January, we've had gorgeous, California blue
sky weather, warm days & I planted peas, cauliflower, parsley
and salad which is appropriate to Winter but I tried Zinnias too, as I
didn't believe that freezes were coming back. Every night my dinner is
a plate of baby chicory leaves. Now, that reseeded itself a month ago,
it was planted years ago and every year by January it's a foot high. I
slathered mine with baba ganoosh and humus and curried lentils. Salad dressing
would work. I could have fed another six people that same meal. If they
were family, it's on me. If they were roomies, I'd have charged them a
buck each for dinner.

9) FOOD IS EVERYWHERE. FISHING is easy, everyone has a
lake or a seashore nearby. My four kids and I have fished off rocks, gone
on sports boats, even used a rubber raft and clammed LA's beaches, and
have fished off rocks
in Malibu, off bait tanks in both the Marina and Sta Monica bay. And off
every pier in the greater L.A. area even paying to go out on the sport
fishing boats occasionally and when cash was short, we've gleened fish
at the pier when the Betty-O came in at noon. Its bait tanks were full
of GAME WARDEN rock cod, the extra quotas the tourists couldn't dare unload
in bags. Boat captain just said 'dig in!' Sammy Davis Jr's father Will
Mastin gave away all his fish, didn't want any of them. Just went out for
poker. So trip down to the water and you bring home l0 lbs of meat, Fish
and chips dinner for your roomies is 5$ a plate. They will pay, too! Get
a recipe for tartar sauce online.

Year round, plums, apples, oranges, limes, grapefruit fall from houses
on every street. My bumpersticker should say "I brake for fruit". If owner's
in sight, I always ask permission. If he's not, hey it's on the ground.
From fruit gleening to clamming to bread making, these are the things I
can and have already done in order to SURVIVE having four children with
a Spaniard in another country who couldn't spell alimony. And it's what
my grandparents did to survive the BIG ONE. The Depression, that is. So,
what are you going to practice? Bread? Clams? Fishing? Hows by you? Any
ideas?

10.) START LAYING IN SUPPLIES - My favorite thing to buy for
the LARDER would be cans of imported Israeli hummus, though 79c is extravagant
when you can lay in bulk garbanzos and glass jars of SESAME TAHINI and
make
your own. It's kind of like PARTY DIP only high on protein, low
on fat. The Arab Market imports an Israeli-made humus and I add lemon and
garlic to it, cilantro, toasted sesame seeds and sesame oil from Asian
market. What's good is it has a plastic interior to can. Safer packaging
than tin. I once ate a half oz piece out of a can of water chestnuts
that were in a TIN for a few years. Tin lining poisoned the chestnuts and
me. Wrapped, frozen CHOCOLATE (DARK CHOCOLATE NOT MILK,) KEEPS PERFECTLY
for years and is the perfect food. You can trade it, too, for almost
anything. Start storing large amounts of dark chocolate. People who
store chocolate intend to barter with it if the, Fit ever hits the shan
-- If Apocalypse didn't strike within three years, they were just going
to eat through their supply and start over. Chocolate keeps for a
long time, especially darker chocolate -- and it's a superfood in and of
itself, besides being prized by many.

11.) RENT A BIG HOUSE, RENT OUT ROOMS- Running a
Boarding house is a noble, time honored tradition in the
USA. Consider it a Bed & Breakfast COSTCO style. WALMART STYLE. You
are in the restaurant business the second you run a ROOMING HOUSE. See,
rooming house MEANS ROOM space is rented for what going rents are. BOARDING
HOUSE means food is included. And you get to double down charge! That's
how my Granny Elena weathered the big one in '29. Marsh street in San Luis
Obispo Her hubby was a guest. She was over 40 and got married! In that
area, they'd clam
Pismos on the beach at low tide. Wish I had her clam recipes! I'll
figure them out as the same clam soup that was in her veins, runs in mine.
More on running a big house as if it were a farm found at THE
COUNTRY LIVING INDEX PAGE.

12.) LAST? BE
AN ACTIVIST. It's fun! Maybe you and your family members can just
turn this ship around!

Presidential election years usually are not recessionary but 2008
will be an exception. Several economic factors are colliding in an
almost perfect storm to markedly slow the general economy and the stock
market.

The most important signal flashing recession is, of course, the
sub-prime mortgage fiasco. After years of monetary inflation on the
part
of the Federal Reserve, individuals and families with poor credit were
suckered into low-down-payment/low-interest adjustable mortgages that
simply cannot be maintained or repaid under current conditions. Their
incentive is to sell the property quickly before their equity evaporates
and/or the financial institution repossesses it. Yet the massive
oversupply of homes and condos for sale has pushed prices down at a
record clip and made additional foreclosures even more likely. Next
year, unfortunately, will be the Year of the Auction. Back to 1929
Assetts 5c on the $

The financial institutions have also been punished…well sort of. Various
institutions including hedge funds that hold these poorly performing
debt obligations have been forced (by accounting rules) to "write down"
the value of these assets, take huge paper losses in the bargain, and
pull in their financial horns. Thus, any near-term recovery in housing
must now fight a record supply availability, falling prices, higher
insurance costs and restricted credit…a near-term impossibility in
my
view.

Moreover, the slowdown in residential and commercial construction will
send secondary ripple effects throughout the economy. Laid-off
construction workers don't spend money. Construction and home furnishing
suppliers sell less output and make fewer investments. Even local
governments will be pinched by declining property-tax assessments and
fewer developer fees. Things are likely to get worse before they get
any
better.

The second major factor indicating a near-term recession is the sky-high
price of crude oil and refined product. Pushed upward by world-wide
speculative Mid-East war fears and increases in demand (especially
from
China), increasing energy prices act as an inflationary "tax" on
domestic production and consumption throughout the market economy.
Higher costs of production will lower profits; higher prices will reduce
some consumption. The only good news here is that any substantial
economic slowdown in 2008 will eventually moderate the price of oil
and
other commodity prices as well.

The third factor in the current recession scenario – and the real wild
card – is the continuing decline in the value of the dollar in
international money markets caused by our Iraq blunder and the Federal
Reserve–generated oversupply of dollars. Some economists would argue
that a devalued dollar is good for U.S. exports, and thus positive
for
the economy as a whole. I disagree for three reasons.

First, the bulk of crude oil purchases takes place in dollars; a falling
dollar translates into still higher crude oil prices. Second, the U.
S.
dollar is the major reserve currency of the international monetary
system and dollar-paying investments (such as U.S. Treasury bills and
bonds) are held in massive amounts by foreign banks and governments.
Dollar devaluation makes these investments less attractive and any
disinvestment in these areas would sharply drive bond prices down and
increase interest rates.

The third reason why dollar devaluation makes recession more Be real
This Fiasco has been Planned for many years as are ALL the Financial
"Crashes" likely is that it effectively prevents the Federal Reserve
from pushing U.S. interest rates much lower. Any additional Fed easing
(inflation) would be seen as a signal of even further future dollar
devaluation and even higher dollar prices for oil. Unfortunately, we
will not be able to "inflate" our way out of this recession this time.
We will simply have to take our lumps and let market forces liquidate
the bulk of the malinvestments caused by the unprecedented Greenspan
money bubble. This liquidation process will not be pretty but it is
necessary to restore a sustainable economic recovery in the years ahead."

I feel the panic will hit even harder in 2009 with Saturn in Virgo opposed
URANUS in
Pisces returning and then in 2010 with Pluto Uranus squares, more war
So you have time to save for a rebuilt VITA MIX food mill and practice
making your
own bread, growing your own grains! And getting A GENERATOR.~^~^~^~^~^~^~